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THE WAIRAU VALLEY RAILWAY.

« ; The suggestion recently made by ! Mr J. Bary, the president of the Wairau Valley Land and Railway . League, that when the survey of the • Hillersden Estate for closer settlement was being made a strip of land should be reserved for the purposes of the railway which, it is hoped, will some day run from Blenheim via Tophouse to connect with tho Hope line and thus link up Marlborough

with the' West Coast, was a most appropriate and timely one, and Mr Bary deserves great credit for having brought the matter under the notice of the Government. . The Prime Minister's reply, which is published in this issue, is guarded and non-com-mittal', after the manner of Ministerial replies; but we trust 'Hhat Mr Massey and his colleagues will really, .as he states they will, give Mr Bary's representations "careful consideration when instructions are being issued for the subdivision of the property." Whether the Government at present regards the proposed railway as a "serious proposition," as Mr Bary hints it should do, or whether1 it considers the project merely an ambitious dream on the part of the people of Marlbbrough, we cannot, of course, pretend to say; but we do say that if the opportunity to carry out the suggestion of the president of the Railway League is allowed to slip by Ministers will be guilty of a lack of foresight for which the people may in the future have to pay dearly. The Wairau Valley railway may not be constructed for some considerable time to come; it may, like the South Island Main Trunk, have to give precedence to lines in other parts of the Dominion, the carrying out of which will not confer anything like equal advantages upon the settlers whose farms will thus be brought into closer touch with the markets of the country, or return anything like the same amount of profit to the State. But that is no reason why the land for the proposed railway should not now be earmarked, •as it were, for future use when the line does come to be laid down. It might,, perhaps, be argued that such a step would tend to harden the price at which other estates through which the line would run would be offered to the Government; but we do not think that this would be the case. The advantages of a line of railway between Marlborough and the West Coast have often been pointed out, and are no doubt fully realised by the people of this province. They should be patent, too, >to the people of the Nelson district and of the Coast, and we would suggest that steps be taken to interest the Members of Parliament and the leading citizens of these portions of the South Island in the whole question of the proposed scheme. Thus the hands 1 of those who are,at the head of the local agitation would be very materially strengthened, and the accomplishment of the project brought into closer view. i

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